Costco Anywhere Visa offers new rewards method

This article was written by Christopher Smith and originally appeared on Clark.com.

Stacking benefits is one of life’s simple pleasures. If you’re a Costco member and frequent shopper, then that’s precisely what you can do with the Costco Anywhere Visa Card by Citi.

In addition to paying 2% cash back at Costco and Costco.com, the Costco Anywhere Visa Card offers cash back on gas, restaurants, eligible travel and more.

However, the way you redeem your rewards is particular. And perhaps rigid.

You get an annual rewards certificate along with your February credit card billing statement. Then you need to take the certificate to a Costco. From there, you can redeem your certificate for Costco merchandise or cash. (It’s up to the discretion of the individual Costco location if the certificate can be redeemed for actual cash or a check.)

However, cardholders can now access another, more convenient option. That’s what a listener of the Clark Howard Podcast recently pointed out.

The Costco Anywhere Visa Card traditionally giveth and taketh away. In addition to 2% off everything at Costco, it offers up to 4% cash back on eligible categories. But it limits you to one reward certificate per year. And you have to physically visit a Costco in order to use your annual reward. At least, that used to be the case. But we got some nice intel from a Clark listener on the March 2 podcast episode.

Andrew in Georgia wrote: “Clark, I never hear you mention this fact about the Costco Citi rewards. Because our recent reward was over $300, Citi emailed me and said I could choose a direct deposit option instead of using it at Costco.

“I chose the direct deposit, and I had the funds in my bank account within three days. This was so much easier than trying to figure what to buy in order to redeem my rewards.”

The major catch with the $300 limit is that, if you only used it for shop- ping at Costco, you’d need to spend $15,000 at Clark’s favorite store in order to rack up enough rewards to access direct deposit.

The 4% cash back on eligible gas and EV charging applies to purchases for the first $7,000 per year and then 1% thereafter. And the 3% on restaurants and travel can cut down the amount you’d have to spend at Costco to unlock the direct deposit rewards option.

“With the Citi rewards, you can go into the store and you just have them turn it into a check,” Clark says.

“Or because it was creating so much hassle for the front end at Costco, and I’m sure some embedded costs for Citi, they now offer this option for you to convert it into a direct deposit into an account of your choosing. I love that.”

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